Father’s Day weekend was celebrated in the Traylor family with the arrival of Ellis James Traylor. Ray is a first-time grandfather, and his son Todd is a new father. Mother and son are doing just fine. Congratulations to the new parents.

Hay, hay and more hay — and I do mean the kind one feeds to the stock. Everybody in the area is rushing to get their hay cut, dried and baled before it rains. Ray got his cut and stored for the coming winter last week. Fay said they were planning to get theirs finished the first of this week. I have seen large rolls of hay on all the fields from Frankfort to Owenton. That’s about the only road I travel anymore.
I got my hard mowed Saturday, so now we will have a drought. After all the rain we’ve had this spring, it’s bound to happen.

Sorry I didn’t write the column last week. I was very “down” over the death of Frank McDonald and just couldn’t think of anything to say.
Everybody else was thinking about cutting hay. Should I or shouldn’t I. Most got faked out about the extended forecast and decided not and it would have been a great week for haying. You win some; you lose some. That’s farming.

The weather is finally starting to look like spring. Saturday was a beautiful day for mowing, pulling weeds and sprucing up the outdoors. John brought Liam down to play in my yard with Jessie and to play in the creek. There is very little water in the creek at the moment, only puddles here and there but just right for a 2 year old to manage.

Rain, rain, rain — that’s about it for the news from the Branch this week. I did manage to get all of the yard mowed before the deluge started. The bad storm Thursday night scared Dobbs to death. I could have slept through it, but she kept digging her way further and further under the covers and kept me awake till it subsided about 4 a.m. I thought we must have had 3 inches of rain, but Fay assured me that it was only a little over an inch and a half. She has been trying to get her flowers planted between showers.

I have had to get out the winter clothes and put them back up this weekend. The weather has turned on us again. Spring in February and winter in April; I should have known not to change out my closets before June.

March must be the longest month of the year. It seems like it has gone on for forever, and it didn’t end well. UK got beat Sunday, so basketball is over for me until next November. Ann has discovered basketball this season, but unlike me, she likes to watch all the games. She will continue with the tournament till the very end. I, on the other hand, will now devote my weekends to golf.